August 18, 2016
Hello all! Apologies for the delay between this and the last post; to make a long story short (and long again, later), Em and I lost internet access for the month of July due to a move, and only recently got it back. Honestly, though, I don't know what I could tell you about's happened between now and then, but here's some stuff:
First, yes. We moved to a much nicer apartment. The old one we were in had some seriously jankey wiring that was at times quite frightening, and some infuriating plumbing problems. The new apartment has its issues, I suppose, but they're small potatoes. The old one had earned (at least from me) the moniker "The Catacombs": while it was a two-bedroom apartment, it was extremely segmented, and had no south-facing windows. The only sun we got was late in the day through two windows that faced the street (the bedrooms), and then only for an hour or two before the sun slid behind the apartment building across the street from us. The biggest room was pretty much constantly in a state of dusky gloom, and the hallway that connected the kitchen to... well, to another hallway was always dark.
This new apartment, though, has a wall that is basically all windows from about waist-height on up, and that in the main room. The main room is very open in its own right, and includes space for a TV, a couch, a table that can seat up to six comfortably, and the kitchen. This apartment is also officially two bedrooms, though it was originally constructed with one large bedroom. The owners put up an interior wall to divide it, which gives me (Eric) a darker room to put my computer in, which I like. There's pretty good airflow -- though the old apartment was admittedly better in that regard, as it had windows on opposite walls -- and two balconies large enough to fit several people on.
In any case, we like it here. A lot more light, a much better view, closer to our colleagues, wiring that isn't scary, and cleaner and better-functioning pipes.
Shortly after we moved, Emily's family came to visit. Or maybe more accurately, we went to visit them in UB, then after a week they came to visit us in Ulaangom. Though there was some... concern over the lack of internet access, I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all. While in UB we saw the sights and ate at a lot of good restaurants including what might now be my favorite Indian restaurant in the world (limited though my experience is), crammed ourselves into taxis to avoid being run down by the occasionally-insane UB drivers, and even got (what I thought was) a really good massage. It was a welcome respite from the "realities" of living in Mongolia, not least because Grace, Lou, and Natalie were willing to indulge us in so many ways to help us wash some of the stress away. Back here in Ulaangom we took it a lot easier, but still had a good time. We tried out the local beer garden (which is now, unbelievably, closed for the year), ate at a few local restaurants, shopped at the market (described in an entry from last year), visited two of the closest lakes, and had a few picnics in the countryside. Hell, they even got to experience a bit of Mongolian chaos when the mikr (microbus) we were taking to one of the lakes nearly broke down and had to be serviced while we waited at what amounts to a Mongolian convenience store in a smaller soum (village) on the road.
That soum, incidentally, is now occupied by one of the newest additions to the Uvs PCV family. Three newly-sworn-in volunteers joined us this past Sunday, one in Ulaangom, one in the soum mentioned above, and one much further south. I'll refrain from using names as that's just not my prerogative, but suffice it to say we're quite pleased to welcome them in, and are looking forward to becoming good friends and working partners over the next year.
That's another thing worth mentioning, I suppose: one way or another (i.e., even if we get the last departure date), Em and I have less than 12 months before we come home. So... yeah. Cooooool.
Speaking of cool, it's basically autumn now. One of my friends here mentioned that, according to the lunar calendar, autumn began in early August. It's definitely cooled down; right around Emily's birthday the rains started coming in, and almost every day since it's rained at least a little, and has been getting just slightly cooler. In fact, about a week and a half ago we experienced a truly awesome storm that I've struggled to describe. You know how thunder rumbles, coming and going like waves? Well, this time it didn't go anywhere, it just constantly rumbled, like someone was ceaselessly rattling a big piece of solid metal. What's more, that thunder preceded the storm's arrival, so we were able to stand on the balcony listening to this, wondering if it was an alien invasion or something (it seriously sounded like it might have been the engines of an alien mothership). Then, the rain started; then it intensified to the point where we couldn't see the building across the street; then the hail came -- about pea-sized, maybe a bit bigger. The entire time the wind was blowing harder than it has since we've been in Mongolia; it tore up a lot of gers, ripped some wires and cables loose on our apartment's roof, and destroyed some fences. The hail actually managed to completely fill our balcony, and created large piles all over the place, like blown snow. When it was over, the garages at the bases of the various apartment buildings were all flooded about knee-high.
I know that's nothing compared to what's going on in places like Houston and, more recently, Louisiana, but it was still pretty amazing. I imagine (and scientists in the field predict) that more and more of these kinds of extreme weather events are going to happen as the planet warms. Given that 2015 was the warmest year on record, and every month this year has been even hotter than that (including this July, the hottest month ever recorded), who knows what this winter will bring?
In unrelated news, one of our close friends finished her two years with KOICA (the simplest analogy is to call it the Korean Peace Corps) and left, two days after that storm actually. Apart from being a good friend, she had also been absolutely invaluable in helping us to settle in here in terms of finding things we needed and getting work done. We're sad to see her go, but intend to bother her a lot in the future.
Uhhh... what else happened? Emily is (literally as I write this) conducting her girl's camp, and though it definitely didn't go the way she had originally planned, it seems to be a resounding success thus far. Em and I also celebrated our two-year anniversary this past Tuesday (the 16th), and will do so again in UB when we have a little free time. We'll raise a toast to you at home if you'll raise one to us! We might lose internet again relatively soon, but we think we've found a good replacement that we should have up and running by the end of the month. Emily found a squash as big as my arm the other day -- grown in Mongolia, no less. The cat is doing fine as always, though we're agonizing about how to get him home when the time comes (because he's absolutely coming with us). We've begun studying for the Foreign Service Officer exam, and I'm working on getting my Spanish back up to par. Lotta down time, recently, so I may as well use it wisely, yeah?
That seems enough, I guess. Here's some pictures without context:
